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Grub-customizer being ignored on dual boot xps 13, plus recrypt Win partition?

Started by fox, April 12, 2023, 12:59:12 PM

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fox

I recently purchased a Dell xps 13 9310 laptop (previous year's version), and successfully installed Ubuntu 22.04 alongside Windows 11 Professional which it came with. In order to do the installation, at least using the Windows alongside Ubuntu option in the installer, I had to first decrypt the Windows partition. This was based on instructions that came during during the Ubuntu installation process. My question is whether I can recrypt the Windows partition without harming the dual boot process. I suspect that if I do, the partition data would not be accessible in Ubuntu without the Bitlocker password, but I don't anticipate needing access to that partition when in Ubuntu. All I care about is being able to boot either system from the Grub menu. I ask because the Grub menu on my older xps has a Windows entry, but you can't boot from it.

Speaking of Grub menu, I downloaded Grub Customizer on the Ubuntu partition and set it up with some menu and background picture options. But for some reason, it doesn't seem to be working. When I go to (re)boot, I just get the standard grub menu. Any ideas for fixing this?
Ubuntu 23.10 on 2019 5k iMac
Ubuntu 22.04 on Dell XPS 13

fox

Solved the grub-customizer problem myself. The picture you select in grub-customizer to be in the background at boot has to have an extension in the name; probably a .jpg extension. Taking the same picture (which is a jpeg) and adding the .jpg extension to its name made it work.
Ubuntu 23.10 on 2019 5k iMac
Ubuntu 22.04 on Dell XPS 13

Jason

Quote from: fox on April 12, 2023, 12:59:12 PM
My question is whether I can recrypt the Windows partition without harming the dual boot process. I suspect that if I do, the partition data would not be accessible in Ubuntu without the Bitlocker password, but I don't anticipate needing access to that partition when in Ubuntu.

I haven't really played around with encryption in Windows but I believe if you do a search in Settings for Bitlocker, you can turn it on for the partition from there.

You can also use Veracrypt to encrypt the partition which should give you access from Linux (once Veracrypt is also installed in Linux) once you enter the password. Essentially, Veracrypt mounts the partition as if it were a hard drive onto itself. Once it's done, you can view the files as if they weren't encrypted. As long as you use Veracrypt to dismount the partition, it will be encrypted again.

Actually, it's always encrypted but files are just decrypted as you access them (and re-encrypted when you dismount the partition). Otherwise, it'd be a long process.

Btw, thank you for sharing the bit about Grub customizer. I haven't tried putting my own graphic up but now I want to. :)
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